A case of toxoplasmosis mimicking systemic recurrence in a patient treated with breast cancer / 대한내과학회지

ABSTRACT

Left cervical lymphadenopathy was found in a 48-year-old Korean female patient who had been treated for breast cancer 3 years ago. A presumative diagnosis was lymph nodal and lung metastasis of breast cancer during chest CT and neck CT. Core needle biopsy was undertaken. Pathological examination of lymph node revealed reactive hyperplasia consistent with toxoplasmosis, and toxoplasma Ig M antibody was also positive. Finally, she was diagnosed as toxoplasmosis, not metastasis of breast cancer. As she had no symptoms, no specific treatment was necessary. Follow up chest and neck CT scan after 5 months later showed resolved lung lesion, and size decrement of cervical lymph node. So, she has no evidence of recurrence and is now under clinical follow up. Recognition that toxoplasmosis can mimic metastasis is important in reaching the correct diagnosis and treatment.